Let me just first say that this game nails down a cutesy and a heartwarming aesthetic. So much so, that I almost feel like a monster writing a not recommending review after playing through the game. If there is one thing that I would like other developers to take note from this game is that games need more hugging. I mean literally, let me hug more characters in games. Let me see that animated.

I'm also a fan of the fact that the game is very much non-violent in pretty much all aspects. Even though the game features cooking with ingredients like pork, beef, and chicken, the only way to attain these ingredients is by buying them.

Anyway, the fact is that this is just not that good of a game. While it certainly delivers in the visual aspect, it leaves much more to be desired in terms of gameplay and writing.

I certainly enjoy my platformers and, especially, if they are of the Metroidvania variety. It appears this game takes certain cues from that genre given how the different traversing abilities work. I also like management games and I'm certainly no stranger to putting hundreds of hours into incremental/clicker games. The thematic of the game is also absolutely spot on for this time. One would think this would make the game an absolute masterpiece in my book, but alas, most of it just feels very tedious.

The platforming in the game is decent enough. It doesn't get in your way, but there are two minor nitpicks I'd like to make. First, initially, there were couple jumps I didn't realize I could make, because the game likes to make some vertical jumps just barely manageable with double jumps due to slight "edge grabbing" animation. Second, ladders tend to get a bit in the way when trying to traverse the ship quickly. That could be fixed by making sure down+jump also falls through ladders.

The biggest pitfalls in the gameplay are the management and crafting aspects. Cooking is perhaps the most complex crafting system in the game and there are a lot of different ingredients to make a lot of different kinds of foods. However, it's also the least necessary and most frustrating system in the game.

Food is pretty much needed only to make your passengers happy. Happiness affects the activities your passengers do, but at the end of the day, even at their happiest, it doesn't have that much of an impact. After 10 hours or so, I just didn't bother feeding the passengers anymore, because it didn't feel worthwhile. It's made worse by the fact that each passenger has different tastes. And you can't give them the same food twice in a row. So, if you want to keep people happy, you have to remember their tastes, which recipes fit that taste, what ingredients make the recipe, and what you previously fed them.

Cooking is also very tedious because you can't access the recipe book anywhere else except the stove. And if the stove is in use, trying to access the recipe book just cancels whatever you're cooking at the moment. Foods also take time to cook. I also believe you can't cook directly from the recipe book, so you have to look at the ingredients needed, and then manually find them. I also wish the game had some kind of pantry where the passengers could look for their desired food, instead of me having to feed every one individually.

The game also has a lot of systems that support the cooking, like making the ingredients in different ways. Most of them turn quite tedious by the end of the game. Watering all the crops, tuning the windmill so that it works, milking cows, feeding animals. Halfway through the game, I was so very tired of doing all this busywork for a system that didn't even reward me that much.

All this could be forgiven if the game had excellent writing to carry it through. Going into this game I was expecting to experience a heart-wrenching story of meetings and goodbyes. I half assumed this would be more of a story rich experience rather than gameplay oriented one.

Again, the game managed to disappoint me in the expectations I had. Perhaps it was just me, but it felt like the first half of the characters were much better written than the latter half. But even they didn't get that much spotlight. A big theme of the game is saying goodbye and when the characters finally leave your boat, it feels like it should be an emotional moment, but at least I didn't feel like much.

The problem in the writing comes down to three things:

First, most of the time is spent in the tedious management tasks, rather than engaging the stories of these characters. Given that this game feels like it should be about these characters, they get very little time and attention. The characters don't have time to grow. It doesn't feel like they go through any major struggles. I had a really hard time making any notable emotional connection with the characters. Saying goodbye didn't feel like it meant much.

Second, the gameplay elements get into the way of these characters. A lot of information about the characters is delivered via things they say on your boat. However, when you talk to them, they also complain about being hungry. Considering how tedious feeding all the characters got, it just felt like they were constantly complaining about the lack of food. So, as a result, I just stopped talking to them. Another minor nitpick is that I wish the hugging could be done as a reactionary act, like when they tell about something sad. Instead, it's just a happiness buff and they won't accept more if you've recently hugged them.

Considering gameplay, saying goodbye also felt a little awkward since you need to do that progress the game. A character leaving gives you resources needed to craft mandatory things, so at some point, I was wondering how I can get these people to leave so I can just get what I need. One character, in particular, was also detrimental to the happiness of others so I was just happy to see him gone.

Third, most interaction is very one-sided. None of the characters interact with each other. Apart from some minor choices, the main character is also completely mute, so it's just monologues delivered by the other characters. At least to me, one very important thing about having a diverse cast of characters is the interaction between them. One aspect I love about JRPGs, for example, is how they generally build characters through their interactions with each other. Even when a character departs from your boat, the others just gather silently without saying a word. Not much of goodbye, when it doesn't even feel like the other characters care.

The ending of the game also doesn't feel like a great payoff. I guess the main character also had kind of struggle and there was this "kind of" an antagonist, but due to lack of dialogue, I first didn't even realize what it was about. The "encounters" were told in such a weird way that I had a really hard time connecting the dots.

In the end, do I regret buying and playing through the game? Not necessarily. I just feel like the game didn't deliver on its promises and it could have been so much more. I expected feeling more emotions through the game and having some kind of impact on me, but the only emotion on top of my head after finishing with the game is a slight frustration.